Senior Reader

Dr Katherine Backler is an Examination Fellow at All Souls College and the Departmental Lecturer in Ancient History in the Faculty of Classics, with University College. She received her BA in Literae Humaniores (Classics) and her DPhil in Ancient History from the University of Oxford. Her research, at the intersection of history and literature, has two related strands. First, recovering the perspectives and experiences of ancient women, and reconsidering how we might access those perspectives. Second, working outwards from the study of individual relationships to re-examine larger-scale social structures. She is particularly interested in the complexities of emotional and bodily intimacy in exploitative relationships, and in the potential for approaching epigraphic texts commissioned by women as women’s efforts to inscribe themselves into their cultural landscapes. She is currently working on a monograph on women’s relationships in classical Attica, and the notes to a new translation of the Greek speechwriter Lysias with Oxford World’s Classics.

Senior Reader

Professor Nick Barber joined the Oxford Law Faculty in 1998 as a Fixed Term Fellow at Brasenose, moving to a tenured Fellowship at Trinity College in 2000. He holds an MA from Oxford and the BCL, and is a non-practicing barrister and member of Middle Temple. In 2013 he was appointed University Lecturer in Constitutional Law and in 2017 he was appointed Professor of Constitutional Law and Theory. In 2012 and 2013 he was a visiting Professor at Renmin University, China. He has lectured extensively on constitutional law and theory in many countries. He has published many papers in these areas, and his book The Constitutional State was published in 2011, and was widely reviewed. His second book, The Principles of Constitutionalism, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018. Professor Barber was founding editor of the United Kingdom Constitutional Law Blog, and was a co-author, with Jeff King and Tom Hickman, of the blog post that sparked the litigation in Miller, a post which first advanced the arguments eventually adopted by the High Court and Supreme Court. Alongside Richard Ekins, he is co-director of The Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government.

Senior Reader

Dr Teresa M. Bejan is Associate Professor of Political Theory and a Fellow of Oriel College, University of Oxford. Before coming to Oxford in 2015, she taught at the University of Toronto and Columbia University. Her work brings early modern perspectives to bear on questions in contemporary political theory. She is the author of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration (2017), as well as numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. She is currently completing her second book for Harvard University Press, First Among Equals: Early Modern Equality in Practice and Theory.

Senior Reader

Professor Paul Billingham is Associate Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Magdalen College. Previously, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford, having also studied at Oxford (BA, MPhil, DPhil). His work focuses on the implications for politics of the diversity of citizens’ beliefs and values, especially in relation to religious beliefs. He is currently working on a debate book entitled Does Faith Belong in Politics?.

Senior Reader

Dr Nuno Castel-Branco is a Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He completed his PhD in the history of science at Johns Hopkins University in 2021 after earning an MSc in Physics at the University of Lisbon. Previously, he was a Loeb Brice Fellow at Harvard University’s Villa I Tatti in Florence, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. His work examines the intellectual and social intersections between areas of knowledge, especially the life sciences, mathematics, and religion in early modern Europe and its global expansion. His first book, The Traveling Anatomist, uses Nicolaus Steno as a tour guide for science, medicine, and religion in seventeenth-century Europe. His writing has appeared in places like the Wall Street Journal and Scientific American, as well as in research journals such as Renaissance Quarterly, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, and Annals of Science.

Senior Reader

Dr Mehmet Ciftci is the Public Bioethics Fellow for the Anscombe Bioethics Centre in Oxford. Previously he was Étienne Gilson Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. After undergraduate studies at the University of Manchester, he received the PGDip, MPhil, and DPhil in Theology from the University of Oxford. His doctoral research about the Second Vatican Council's teaching on church-state relations is contracted to be published soon with Palgrave Macmillan. He has published widely in academic journals on various subjects, such as liberation theology, the Qur’an, the critique of political ideologies, and Mariology. He conducts research for the Anscombe Centre on conscientious objection and assisted suicide, whilst also being interested in the historic impact of Christianity on the development of constitutionalism.

Senior Reader

Dr Marysia Czepiel is the Stipendiary Lecturer in Spanish at Brasenose and Balliol Colleges. Her research focuses on Classical reception, humanism, and religious poetry in the Golden Age of Spain. She has published on the Spanish and Neo-Latin poetry of the sixteenth century, in particular on Garcilaso de la Vega. Her DPhil studied the poetry of the Spanish humanist Benito Arias Montano (ca. 1525–1598).

Senior Reader

Dr Edward A. David is the McDonald Postdoctoral Fellow in Christian Ethics & Public Life, based in the Faculty of Theology and Religion and affiliated with Christ Church, Oxford. His current research investigates the empirical and moral dimensions of character development amongst aspiring and established leaders within the financial services sector. Edward also publishes in the field of law and religion, and is the author of A Christian Approach to Corporate Religious Liberty (Palgrave Macmillan 2020). In addition to his academic work, Edward is a senior consultant for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses UK programme, and is a lead author of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women programme on Coursera. Edward holds a Bachelor of Music from New York University as well as an MSt and DPhil in Theology (Christian Ethics) from the University of Oxford.

Senior Reader

Professor Richard Ekins is a Tutorial Fellow in Law at St John’s College and a Professor in the University of Oxford. He received his BA, LLB (Hons) and BA (Hons) degrees from The University of Auckland, before going on to read for the BCL, MPhil and DPhil at Oxford. He has worked as a Judge’s Clerk at the High Court of New Zealand at Auckland, and a Lecturer at Balliol College, and was a Senior Lecturer in Law at The University of Auckland for several years before moving (back) to Oxford. He leads Policy Exchange’s Judicial Power Project and, with Nick Barber, the Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government.

Senior Reader

Professor Chiyuma Elliott is the author of Vigil (2017) and California Winter League (2015). Her poems have appeared in the African American Review, Callaloo, the Notre Dame Review, the PN Review, and other journals. A former Stegner, Cave Canem, and American Philosophical Society Fellow, Professor Elliott teaches African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. She additionally serves on the Academic Committee of the Canterbury Institute’s Barry Scholarship.

Senior Reader

Charles Foster is a Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford, a member of the Law Faculty (where he is a Visiting Professor), a Senior Research Associate at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, a Research Associate at the Ethox and Helex Centres, and an Associate at the Oxford Human Rights Hub, all at the University of Oxford. He is also a barrister, practising at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, and a part time judge of the Crown Court and the County Court. He has been involved in many of the key cases in medical law and ethics over recent years, including the assisted suicide litigation in the House of Lords, the Supreme Court, and the European Court of Human Rights. His research primarily concerns questions of identity and personhood, the use in medical law and ethics of the notion of human dignity, and the use of abuse of the principle of autonomy. He is the author of many academic books and hundreds of articles, and publishes widely outside academia - for instance the New York Times Bestseller Being a Beast, which also won the IgNobel Prize for Biology. A complete list of publications can be found at www.charlesfoster.co.uk.

Senior Reader

Dr William Ghosh is Associate Professor of World Literatures in English at the University of Oxford, and an Official Student of Christ Church. Prior to this, he taught Victorian and Modern Literature at Jesus College, Oxford. He works on writing from Britain, the Caribbean, and South Asia from 1800 onwards, with particular interests in prose form and technique and in literary pedagogy. His publications include a monograph, V.S. Naipaul, Caribbean Writing, and Caribbean Thought (Oxford University Press, 2021). He was a founding convenor of the Oxford University Caribbean Studies Network, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Senior Reader

Dr Cosima Clara Gillhammer is a Junior Research Fellow in Medieval English at Christ Church, Oxford, and a Stipendiary Lecturer at Trinity College, Oxford. Previous positions include that of Postdoctoral Researcher at the English Faculty, Oxford, and Erika and Kenneth Riley Fellow at the Huntington Library, California. She holds a DPhil in Medieval English from the University of Oxford, and two postgraduate degrees in English Linguistics and Literature, German Literature, and Classical Archaeology from LMU University of Munich. Her research focuses on textual criticism, medieval English Bible translation and biblical scholarship, and manuscript studies. She is the founder of the Oxford Medieval Commentary Network, an interdisciplinary forum which brings together research on commentary as a textual form. Her most recent book is an edition of medieval English translations of liturgical texts, The Wycliffite Old Testament Lectionary (OUP, 2021).

Senior Reader

Dr Melody Grubaugh holds a PhD in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, with concentrations in Constitutional Studies and Political Theory. Her research looks at the intersection of politics and religion in medieval and early modern thought, specifically in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. Her dissertation focused on Aquinas’s writings on the Mosaic Law, both as of key importance in his own thought on politics and in relation to what is frequently termed “political Hebraism.” She is also interested in American Constitutional Law, particularly on first amendment questions, and politics and literature.

Senior Reader

Dr Daniel D. De Haan is the Frederick Copleston Senior Research Fellow & Lecturer in Philosophy and Theology in the Catholic Tradition at Blackfriars and Campion Hall, University of Oxford. He is the principal investigator of the Conceptual Clarity Concerning Human Nature project sponsored by the Templeton World Charity Foundation and hosted by the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion in the Faculty of Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on philosophical anthropology, philosophy of mind and neuroscience, moral psychology, the metaphysics of hylomorphism, philosophy of religion, and medieval philosophy and theology especially in the work of Thomas Aquinas and Avicenna. He is the author of Necessary Existence and the Doctrine of Being in Avicenna’s Metaphysics of the Healing (Brill, 2020).

Senior Reader

Dr Victoria De Haan is a lector in Catholic Theology at Blackfriars Studium, Oxford. She obtained her doctorate in theology from KU Leuven, Belgium, and was the recipient of a PhD fellowship from the Flemish Research Fund. Her doctoral thesis examined the work of the Russian Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann and its relation to Catholic mission of the new evangelization. She teaches a range of subjects within systematic theology, with a special focus on liturgy and sacramental theology, the Church Fathers, especially St Augustine, and Vatican II.

Senior Reader

Dr Andrew Hegarty is a graduate of Merton College, University of Oxford, and obtained his DPhil from the same University. A historian, he specialises academically in the history of universities, particularly Oxford, Salamanca and Paris, and that above all in the early-modern period. Some years ago he investigated the role of the Spanish Dominican, Bartolomé de Carranza in reforming the University of Oxford in the reign of Queen Mary Tudor. He has contributed nearly two dozen entries to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He was Assistant Editor of, and a significant contributor to, a comprehensive history of Magdalen College, Oxford, from the fifteenth century to the present day. A lengthy prosopographical work on the members of St. John’s College, Oxford, in its first century to 1660, was published in 2011. He is interested in Church history and has written on interventions by academics in early-modern Church-State relations. The first volume of the recent History of Oxford University Press contains a chapter and a number of other contributions by him. He has served as Warden of a hall of residence for students in London. Since 2004 he has been Director of the Thomas More Institute in London. He continues to develop wider interests in the role of the university as an institution, and on friendship as a crucial ethical concept.

Senior Reader

Professor Zena Hitz is a Tutor at St John's College in Annapolis, where she has the joy of teaching great books of mathematics, science, and literature, as well as in her home fields of classics and philosophy. She received an MPhil in Classics from Cambridge University (1996) and a PhD in Philosophy from Princeton University (2005). Her most important scholarly work argues that Aristotle’s account of the influence of law on human character unifies his ethical and political works, illuminating what is lost when his thinking is carved into arbitrary parts by current academic disciplines. More recently, she has offered public defense for learning for its own sake and liberal education. Her book Lost In Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life (Princeton, 2020) is being translated into seven languages, including Arabic, Catalan, Turkish and Vietnamese. Her essays on the importance of humanistic study have appeared in Commonweal, New Statesman, Washington Post, Womankind and elsewhere. In 2020, she founded the Catherine Project, a non-profit which hosts serious conversations on great books, open to everyone. Her new book for general audiences, A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life (Cambridge, 2023), gives an account of the Christian ascetical tradition and its importance in everyday life. Professor Hitz serves on the Canterbury Institute’s Academic Committee for selection of the Barry Scholarship.

Senior Reader

Dr Rebecca Lowe is a political philosopher, whose interests range from moral property rights, to the value of democracy, to fiscal decentralisation. In her doctoral thesis, she advanced a Lockean-liberal common-good justification for private property. She works on political and economic research issues as a consultant, including an ongoing engagement as research director for a patient-capital investment company. She is the former director of FREER, a think tank advancing economically and socially liberal ideas. She has worked for various other research organisations, including Policy Exchange, where she was State and Society Fellow, and convenor of the Research Group on Political Thought. She co-founded Radical, a civil-rights campaign for freedom and truth on matters of sex and ‘gender’. Her recent and upcoming publications include a chapter on the democratic state’s obligation of transparency, for an edited volume called ‘Political Philosophy in a Pandemic’; a paper on property rights in space, for the Adam Smith Institute; and an entry on Locke’s conception of justice for the Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy.

Senior Reader

Dr Anne Makena is the Programme Coordinator of the Africa Oxford Initiative (AfOx), a vibrant platform for all things Africa at Oxford. Dr Makena is responsible for developing and implementing the overall strategy of the Initiative, as well as managing core AfOx programmes. AfOx supports a wide range of activities including a travel grant scheme and visiting fellowships for African academics, supporting high quality meetings and providing academic and mentorship support to African students and research staff in Oxford. Dr Makena read her DPhil in Chemical Biology in Somerville College, Oxford.

Senior Reader

Ryan Meade is a Fellow of Blackfriars Hall, where he is also Research Fellow of the Aquinas Institute. He is a member of the Oxford Faculty of Law. He teaches jurisprudence, bioethics, and Roman Law at Hertford College. His academic work in legal philosophy explores metaphysics, action, and ethics in law and the role of prudence in drafting, complying, and enforcing positive law. He also keeps up specialties in administrative law, medical law, and state-required compliance and ethics programmes for firm governance. He is the founding co-convenor of the Oxford Common Good Project. Prior to teaching at Oxford he was the founding Director of the Center for Compliance Studies at Loyola University Chicago School of Law and Director of Regulatory Compliance Studies overseeing the curriculum and faculty of the Center’s LLM programme in regulations and administrative law. He received a BA in history from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor from Cornell University, where he cross-studied in Cornell’s Sage School of Philosophy. He completed a post-graduate programme in law at the University of Edinburgh Law School.

Senior Reader

Dr Caroline Nalule is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre. She holds a PhD in law from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where her thesis examined the migration rights of citizens in the East African Community. She holds an LLM in international human rights law from Lund University, Sweden, and a LLB from Makerere University, Uganda. She is an advocate of the High Court of Uganda and Superior Courts. Dr Nalule has more than ten years experience working in the field of human rights and international law. Her work has involved legal and policy analysis, advocacy, litigation, civil society networking and mobilisation, fundraising, as well as organisational management and administration. She previously worked for Riara University, Nairobi; the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Africa Office; and the Uganda Human Rights Commission.

Senior Reader

Professor Mark Philp researches political theory and political sociology, most recently on justice in relation to ageing, political corruption and issues relating to standards in public life, as well as in the history of political thought and British history at the time of the French Revolution. He is currently working on the re-imagining of democracy at the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography, the Godwin Diaries, political realism and political ethics, and the history of political thought. Professor Philp chairs the Research Advisory Board to the Committee on Standards in Public Life and contributed the paper Public Ethics and Political Judgment to the Committee’s inquiry on Ethics in Practice in July 2014. From 2007-2010 he ran a three year digitization project on the Diary of William Godwin, 1788-1836, funded by a Leverhulme Major Research Grant. Professor Philp is the author of numerous books including Thomas Paine (Oxford University Press) and Political Conduct (Harvard University Press). He is Professor of History and Politics in the University of Warwick and resides in Oxford.

Senior Reader

Dr Jonathan Price holds a dual fellowship as Pusey Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford, and Barry Lay Academic Fellow of Pusey House - the continuing home of the Oxford Movement. He has been teaching philosophy and law in Blackfriars Hall since 2011. He is a visiting researcher at the University of Leiden Law School, and a Research Associate of the Programme for the Foundations of Law, in Oxford’s Faculty of Law. Dr Price is the founding editor of the peer-reviewed journal Politics & Poetics.

Senior Reader

Professor Christian Sahner is Associate Professor of Islamic History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College. His work explores the history of North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia during the transition from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Professor Sahner is the author or editor of four books: Among the Ruins: Syria Past and Present (Hurst/Oxford, 2014); Christian Martyrs under Islam (Princeton, 2018); Conversion to Islam in the Premodern Age (California, 2020, co-editor); and The Definitive Zoroastrian Critique of Islam (Liverpool, 2023). Born in New York City, he earned an AB from Princeton, an MPhil from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and a PhD also from Princeton. Prior to joining the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies in Oxford, he was a research fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge. He writes about the history, art, and culture of the Middle East from time to time for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Times Literary Supplement, and others.

Senior Reader

Dr Lola Salem graduated from the École Normale Supérieure, Lyon, in 2015 (MA Musicology), the Sorbonne in 2018 (MA Philosophy of Arts) and the University of Oxford in 2023 (DPhil Musicology). She is a Lecturer in Music (Oriel) and French (Wadham, St Catherine’s). Her research lies in the fields of opera, performers, and other material conditions related to creativity during the long seventeenth century. She was trained as a professional singer at the Maîtrise de Radio France between 2005 and 2010, and worked as an art critic across Europe between 2016 and 2020.

Senior Reader

Professor Santiago Schnell is the William K Warren Foundation Dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, as well as a professor of biological sciences and applied and computational mathematics and statistics. A Fellow of the Royal Societies of Chemistry and Medicine as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he is also the winner of the 2023 Arthur Winfree Prize from the Society for Mathematical Biology. Dean Schnell’s research program derives from the premise that there is a continuum between health and disease, and he has made substantive contributions to the standardization of models and protocols to measure enzyme catalyzed reactions in the life sciences. He is internationally renowned for deriving the Lambert W function equation of enzyme kinetics, also known as the Schnell-Mendoza equation.

Senior Reader

Professor Tom Simpson is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, and a Senior Research Fellow at Wadham College. He is an AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker for 2017. Professor Simpson works particularly on trust, and issues at the intersection of technology and security. He convenes the speaker series Aspects of Conservatism. He joined the University of Oxford from Cambridge, where he was a Research Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, and was also educated (BA, MPhil, PhD). Between degrees he was an officer with the Royal Marines Commandos for 5 years. He served in Northern Ireland; Baghdad, Iraq; and Helmand Province, Afghanistan. The academic life is undoubtedly a privilege, but he remains conflicted about its sedentary nature.

Senior Reader

Audrey Southgate (DPhil, Merton) is a Lecturer in Old and Middle English in Lincoln and Hertford Colleges, University of Oxford. Her research concentrates on medieval literature, with a particular focus on Psalm reception in late medieval England. Her DPhil on Lollard translations of the Psalms served as a nexus for questions relating to biblical interpretation, poetic translation, the scholastic and devotional traditions, and the history and philosophy of education. More recently, she has begun a project on English translations of the Book of Hours and their putative influence on the Book of Common Prayer. She also composes poetry, and was recently awarded a prize from Oxford's English Faculty for her poem 'Saeculum'.  Audrey currently convenes the John Colet reading group at the Canterbury Institute, which explores the history and principles of 'classical' education, and has enjoyed helping to deliver the Awakening Project programme.

Senior Reader

Dr Michael Wee is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Global Mental Health Ethics at the University of Oxford Psychiatry Department, where he is part of the Neuroscience, Ethics and Society group. His current research is on the ethics of genomic research for neurodevelopmental disorders, with a particular focus on the ethics of cell line creation, philosophical issues surrounding informed consent especially for persons with intellectual disabilities, and the role of genomics in conceptualising mental illness. He completed his PhD in Philosophy at Durham University, with a thesis on ‘Action and Necessity: Wittgenstein’s On Certainty and the Foundations of Ethics’. His doctoral work examined the nature of normative reasoning and ethical concepts, through engagement with Wittgenstein's philosophy of language and logic, alongside Anscombe's thought on action and the practical syllogism. He is an Associate Research Fellow of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, where he is contributing to a project on ethics and the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and he is also a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Vatican’s bioethics advisory body.

Senior Reader

Professor Paul Yowell is a Fellow of Oriel College and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law. Previously, he was a lecturer at New College. He did his postgraduate studies at Oxford (DPhil, MPhil, BCL), having previously practiced law and studied in the U.S. (JD, BA, Baylor University). He is also on the adjunct faculty of the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of Constitutional Rights and Constitutional Design: Moral and Empirical Reasoning in Judicial Review and co-author of Legislated Rights: Securing Human Rights through Legislation. He researches public law and legal theory, with particular interest in the separation of powers, constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, and human rights.

Middle Reader

Howard Anglin is reading for the DPhil in Law at Linacre College. He previously received an MPhil in Law (with distinction) from Oxford, a JD from New York University, and a BA (with honours) in English Literature at McGill University. Before coming to Oxford, he served as Principal Secretary to the Premier of Alberta, Canada, as Chief of Staff to the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, and as Senior Advisor - Legal Affairs, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Acting Chief of Staff to the Prime Minister of Canada. He also clerked on the United States Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit, practiced law in London and Washington, DC, and was the executive director of a legal charity defending constitutional rights and freedoms in Canada. Howard is a recipient of a scholarship from the Programme for the Foundations of Law and Constitutional Government, and a Scholarship in Legal Philosophy from the Canterbury Institute. His MPhil thesis considered the impact of judicial review on the process of governing and suggested why and how governments might resist internalising the judicial perspective as they govern. His DPhil research explores the concept of a constitution. Howard is a regular contributor to print and online publications in Canada on topics ranging from law, political philosophy, and public policy to literature, food, and drink.

Middle Reader

Abigail Anthony is reading for the MPhil in Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics at St Hugh’s College. She is a senior at Princeton University majoring in Politics and earning certificates in Linguistics and Creative Writing. On campus, she served as President of the Princeton Federalist Society, Chief Copy Editor of The Princeton Tory, Vice President of the free-speech organisation the Princeton Open Campus Coalition, and Treasurer of the Princeton Network of Enlightened Women chapter. She has written for National Review, USA Today, The Washington Free Beacon, The College Fix, and other publications. Prior to attending university, she was a professional ballerina. Abigail is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Grace Aquilina is reading for the MPhil in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology at Linacre College. She graduated summa cum laude from Duquesne University with a BA in English Literature and minors in Philosophy, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, and Women’s and Gender Studies. Her work has focused on the use of cellular metaphors in eugenics rhetoric and on the influence of women’s religiosity in social reform movements. Grace was a Christian Studies Fellow at the Beatrice Institute for three years, where she organised a conference and performance-lecture on the sacred music of jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams. A native of Pittsburgh, Grace enjoys writing essays and exploring historic churches. Grace is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Francesco Banfi is reading for the DPhil in Medieval Philosophy at Corpus Christi College. He previously studied at Roma Tre University in Rome, reading his undergraduate and master’s in Philosophy. His master’s thesis focused on the relation between definition and demonstration in Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics II 6,7. Francesco is now working on Thomas Aquinas’ reception and the interpretation of some of Aristotle’s logical and metaphysical themes, such as real definitions essences and hylomorphism. Whilst interested in the whole history of philosophy, in focusing on ancient and medieval thought, Francesco’s main goal is directed towards the rediscovery of a contemplative notion of nature abandoned by the main philosophical streams of modern thought. As a matter of general philosophical interest, Francesco is also concerned in thinking more carefully about the interaction of a proper metaphysical concept of nature and essence through key notions particularly developed in the modern period such as person, subjectivity and history.

Middle Reader

Drew Basile is reading for the MSt in English Literature (1900-Present) at Mansfield College. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a major in English and a minor in Philosophy. His senior thesis focused on the narrative role of free indirect discourse in Flaubert and Musil. Also at Penn, he served as an Undergraduate Fellow for the Collegium Institute and an editor for the Penn Review. He received the Mellon Undergraduate Summer Fellowship for a digital humanities project tracking Russian translation, as well as the Terry B. Heled Travel and Research Grant for a travelogue following Goethe’s Italian Journey. Drew hopes to blend continental philosophy with modernist literature in considering narrative worlds from a phenomenological perspective. In his free time, he writes fiction, plays Scrabble, and enjoys the television show Survivor. Drew is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Mariana Canales is reading for the DPhil in Law at St John’s College, where she read her MPhil in Law in 2021. She is interested in constitutional law and legal philosophy. Before coming to Oxford, she was a research fellow in the Institute for Social Studies (Instituto de Estudios de la Sociedad, IES) in Chile. She obtained her law degree from Universidad Católica and was appointed Adjunct Professor there in 2020.

Middle Reader

Joseph Cobon is reading for the BPhil in Philosophy at Oriel College, Oxford. He grew up in a small city just outside of Houston Texas called Humble. After graduating from high school there, he attended the University of Texas at Austin to study philosophy and focus adjunctly on religious studies and psychology. He finished with a BA along with university highest honours and departmental philosophy honours. His honours thesis in philosophy put forth an updated version of the so-called fine-tuning argument. The intuition here is that the universe’s ability to support life seems to sensitively and restrictively depend on the fundamental characteristics of the cosmos, as if all of the appropriate life-permitting parameters were ‘fine-tuned’ to bring about life. He assessed the probability of the existence of life and the existence of conscious life under the two explanatory hypotheses of Theism and Naturalism. His interests are highly interdisciplinary, incorporating the wisdom of scientific inquiry (e.g., cosmology, quantum mechanics, and evolutionary biology) and major religious traditions, to bear on questions of mind, explanation, and causation within traditional metaphysics. He is committed to the project of fostering a more consistent and comprehensive world theory within which science, philosophy, and religion are in constant discourse. Aside from his research, he enjoys spending time playing piano, lifting weights, reading Christian apologetics, and meditating. Joseph is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Fernando is writing a DPhil dissertation in Law at Oriel College. His main interests lie in public law and practical philosophy. The topic of his thesis is the theory and practice of the invalidation of norms. Before beginning the DPhil he studied law in Chile (Universidad Católica), where he later lectured in civil procedural law, and then completed an MPhil degree (Oxford). His MPhil thesis focused on John Rawls’ account of the political, with special reference to the idea of public reason. Fernando has published papers in law and translated the revised edition of Lon Fuller’s The Morality of Law into Spanish.

Middle Reader

Elizabeth Crabtree is reading for a DPhil in Theology at Blackfriars Hall. She earned a BA in History at Franciscan University of Steubenville and an MSt in Medieval Studies at Blackfriars. Her research interests lie in medieval Christian Hebraism. In particular, she is examining how the Hebrew language and Rabbinic exegesis influenced the biblical scholarship of Nicholas of Lyra, an early fourteenth-century Franciscan.

Middle Reader

Nathan Coundon is a DPhil student in the Faculty of Theology and Religion, specialising in Philosophical Theology. He is a member of Trinity College and a recipient of the Bampton - Christie Millar Scholarship. Nathan has an MPhil in Philosophical Theology from Oxford, which he completed as a Clarendon Scholar. He also has a BA (Hons) Class I in Philosophy from the University of Leeds. Nathan’s doctoral research is situated in the disciplines of Philosophical Theology and Philosophy of Religion, and his work concerns the theory of Divine Simplicity developed by the Cappadocian Fathers. Nathan argues that Cappadocian Simplicity can transform the modern philosophical understanding of Divine Simplicity, whilst he also studies the relationship between Cappadocian Simplicity and other theories of Divine Simplicity, especially Thomism and Palamism. Nathan’s other research interests include theological epistemology and religious rationality, whilst his background in theoretical philosophy sustains his academic interest in Philosophy of Mind, Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Logic.

Middle Reader

John De Bahl is a PhD student in International Relations at Nuffield College, Oxford. He is interested in social status in international relations and the development of the international system. John’s thesis examines the intersection of these themes, looking at how actors look to have developed social categories that (re-)stratify the international realm. In his spare time, John can be found watching, playing, or talking about cricket. John is a 2022 Ramsay Scholar.

Middle Reader

Colton Duncan is reading for the MPhil in Modern Languages. He graduated summa cum laude from Hillsdale College with a BA in Classics and International Studies in Business and Foreign Language. He hopes to study the relationship between aesthetic perception and moral education by researching the influence of Neoplatonic thought on German Romanticism. His senior thesis investigated Bernard of Clairvaux's use of paradox in the Sermons on the Song of Songs as a means to attain knowledge of the divine. Colton has served as a leader for Hillsdale’s Thomistic Institute chapter and as a member of the Catholic Society Executive Board. He enjoys backpacking, hunting, cooking, and film, and is a Gregorian chant aficionado. Colton is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Jessie Edgar is reading for a DPhil in Musicology at Linacre college and is affiliated with the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics. She graduated from Columbia University with honours in music and psychology and went on to complete an MPhil in musicology at Lincoln College. Her work focuses on the effects of age-related hearing impairment on ensemble singing, looking at the physiological, acoustic and psychological results of aging on the voice. Her previous work detailed the vocal health ramifications of the idealised boy treble tone on female sopranos in Oxbridge chapel choirs. Jessie is published in the Journal of Women in Music and has discussed her work at conferences around the United Kingdom. She is also a professional soprano and has worked with the Oxford Bach Soloists, the Magdalen Consort, Instruments of Time & Truth consort, Edward Higginbottom, Orchestra Vox, and many other Oxford and London-based ensembles. In addition to ensemble work, her recent/upcoming work as a soloist involves much early opera, including Venus in Blow’s Venus and Adonis, Diane in Charpentier’s Acteon, Filia in Carissimi’s Jepthe, Handel’s Messiah, and Couperin’s Trois Leçons de Ténèbres.

Middle Reader

Nathan is reading for the DPhil in Philosophy at Oriel College with a project concerning the modal ontological argument for the existence of God. Prior to this he read PPE at Oriel College, an MA in Political Science at Baylor University and an MSt in Ancient Philosophy at Blackfriars Hall. His interests concern philosophy of religion, Aristotle, Aquinas, ethics, political philosophy, and metaphysics.

Middle Reader

Rose Elvidge is reading for the DPhil in Philosophy at Oriel College on a Faculty of Philosophy scholarship. She earned her BA in Philosophy from Baylor University, and her BPhil in Philosophy at Queens College. She focuses on issues of bio- and sexual ethics, especially abortion and sexual exploitation. Her wider interests include natural law theory, Aristotelian and Thomistic metaphysics, and philosophy of mind. Her dissertation seeks to critique value-neutral and relativist accounts of sex by raising contradictions within feminist attempts to make sense of sexual exploitation. She is also a Research Fellow of the Wollstonecraft Project of the Abigail Adams Institute, where she co-founded an online journal, Fairer Disputations, focusing on sex-realist feminism. She is married to fellow Philosophy DPhil and Middle Reader Nathan Elvidge and is pregnant with their second child. Rose Elvidge is a 2019 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Rachel Gambee is reading for the MPhil in Theology at Oriel College, Oxford. Rachel previously majored in Religion and Middle Eastern Studies in Dartmouth College. In her senior thesis, Rachel investigated the intellectual roots of Humanae Vitae. She is particularly interested in political theology and religious nationalism. At Oxford, she hopes to study the role of faith in theories of liberalism and the ethical questions raised by the influence of theology on public institutions. When not working, Rachel enjoys being outdoors hiking, cross-country skiing, or fly fishing. Rachel is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Herald Gandi is a DPhil candidate in Hebrew Bible at Worcester College. His thesis explores the poetics of psalm composition in the book of Jonah in light of the book of Psalms and the Qumran scrolls. He was born in southern India but emigrated to the States where he completed his undergraduate and master’s degrees in Biblical Studies. Beyond the Hebrew Bible, he can be found reading about Classical theism, English literature, philosophy, and poetry. He also enjoys playing cricket in the summer.

Middle Reader

Nicolas Galvan is reading for the DPhil in Theology (Patristics) at Christ Church College. Before pursuing academics, he was a case manager for the chronically homeless in California, where he helped develop a multi-million dollar government-funded programme that eventually rehabilitated hundreds off the streets and into housing. This has reintegrated several back into society, stopped the cycle of homelessness for homeless families, and extended the lives of those considered critical. He then received a BA in Biblical and Theological Studies at Biola University, where he graduated summa cum laude and was elected to the Epsilon Kappa Epsilon Honour Society for distinguished scholastic achievements and Christian character. Afterward, he received an MPhil degree in Theology (Patristics) at Wycliffe Hall, where he received a distinction on his thesis which explored the connection between early Christian baptism and martyrdom. He argued for the martyr-image reshaping fourth-century baptism when the threat of government persecution and martyrdom had diminished. His current research follows the connection between Christian baptism and martyrdom found in the early Christian intellectual Origen of Alexandria. This focuses on the influence of Greek paideia on Origen and how it shaped his theology on the schema between baptism and martyrdom.

Middle Reader

Alberto Garzoni is reading for the DPhil in Theology (Patristics and Christian Ethics) at Keble College. He holds an MA in Philosophy (Hons) from the University of Padua and a Diploma in Moral Sciences (Hons) from the Galilean School of Higher Education. Part of the coursework towards those degrees was completed at Boston University. His current research focuses on the political theology of Augustine of Hippo, its connections with liturgy and its influence on contemporary debates in political theory. Other interests include Catholic social thought, virtue ethics, Gregorian chant, theatre, and the poetry of T. S. Eliot.

Middle Reader

Lexy Gillette is reading for the DPhil in Inorganic Chemistry at Worcester College. She graduated summa cum laude from Westmont College with a BSc in Physics and Chemistry. Her academic interests concentrate within the materials sciences at the intersection of chemistry and physics, particularly in how the chemical makeup and structure of a material affects its magnetic properties. She has previously worked with superconducting Chevrel Phases and is now working in the lab of Professor Simon Clarke at Oxford researching oxysulfides with unusual magnetic and electric properties. Outside of the lab, her interests include hiking, reading novels, and dancing. Lexy is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Prerita Govil is reading for the MPhil in Classical Indian Religion at Wolfson College. She graduated magna cum laude from American University with a BA in Political Science and a specialisation in Political Theory. As an undergraduate, she was awarded the Political Theory Institute’s annual prize for her essay on the role of leisure in Michel de Montaigne’s political thought and its greater bearing on considerations of liberal education. She is particularly interested in inquiries of the good, truth, virtue, human nature, self-knowledge, and the question of what it, ultimately, means to be a human being. Prerita is excited to further explore these questions through a comparative approach that delves into both Ancient Indian and Greek philosophy. Outside of her formal coursework, she has held fellowships with the Hudson Institute Political Studies, the Hertog Foundation, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, and the Witherspoon Institute. She enjoys reading a good novel, learning new languages, and taking long walks with her dog. Prerita is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Fr Jack Green is reading for the MPhil in Modern Theology at Mansfield College. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 2018, after which he served in a parish in Sydney for three years before coming to Oxford. Fr Jack is interested in the nature/grace distinction as it manifests in ecclesiology and politics, and his thesis is on a particular application of this in the concept of transparency. Fr Jack has undergraduate degrees in philosophy (honours) and theology. Outside academia, he loves playing football, running, and a good cup of coffee.

Middle Reader

Connor Grubaugh is reading for the DPhil in Politics at Oriel College. Before coming to Oxford, Connor received a BA in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame. His research ranges widely across themes in political theory and the history of political thought, with a focus on the modern reception of ancient historiography and Christian theology. His primary interest is in the philosophy of history and the importance of the concept of hope for the development of the liberal political tradition. He has presented papers on Hannah Arendt’s appropriation of St. Augustine and on the political implications of John Locke’s Christian apologetics. Connor Grubaugh is a 2020 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Isabelle Heinemann is an alumna of St Hilda's College and Researcher at the Pusey Centre for Theology, Law and Culture. She is currently pursuing a PhD in the History of European Civilisation at the EUI Florence. Her main research interests concern the genealogy of the twin ideas of universal empire and peace across the Renaissance Mediterranean as well as its interpretation as political theology in modern historiography, particularly in the work of Ernst Kantorowicz. She has previously worked on Byzantine history, the Vienna Congress, and Middle Eastern current affairs. She is a scholar of the Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Foundation and former chair of the Oxford Interfaith Scriptural Reasoning Society.

Middle Reader

Nathaniel Helms is pursuing a DPhil in philosophy at Oriel College, Oxford where he focuses on free will, moral responsibility, and the ethics of belief. Prior to this, he read the BPhil (also at Oriel), an MA at Florida State University, and a BA at the University of Dallas. Originally from Texas, he has also spent time working for the Chaldean Church in Iraq.

Middle Reader

Katherine Helmick is reading for the DPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages. She completed the MSt in Comparative Literature and Critical Translation (Spanish and Zulu) at Keble College. She also holds a BA in Art with a Spanish minor and concentration in U.S. Politics from Hillsdale College. Her research focuses on language and literature in Africa, with particular attention to the implications of translingualism in multi-ethnic nations such as South Africa and Equatorial Guinea. An avid traveler, Katherine has taught with the JET program in Japan and served with the Peace Corps in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She writes on philosophical and social issues for The Critic and previously studied political philosophy as a resident fellow at the John Jay Institute. In 2014, she founded Salt and Iron: SeasonedWriting.com, an online magazine dedicated to excellence in Christian writing. She enjoys partner dancing and public speaking. Katherine is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Nathaniel Hodson is reading for the MPhil in Theology (Christian Ethics) as a Clarendon Scholar at University College. Originally from California, he holds a BA in Philosophy with High Distinction from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and awarded the Philosophy Departmental Citation. Before coming to Oxford, he also graduated summa cum laude from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School with a Master of Divinity. Nathaniel is interested in all aspects of moral theology, and his research incorporates the Christological concerns of Augustine’s political thought into conversations in contemporary political theology. When not working, Nathaniel enjoys surfing, classical music, and film.

Middle Reader

Jack Hume is a Ramsay Scholar reading for a PhD in Philosophy at University College London. His research explores justifications for arts funding in the context of liberal political philosophy. Prior to his PhD, he undertook an MPhil in Philosophy, also at UCL, and a BA in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Sydney. Outside of study, he also enjoys hiking and playing music.

Middle Reader

Alexander (Xander) Jackman is a 2022 Ramsay Scholar reading for the Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) at University College. Xander holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons I, University Medal for History) and Bachelor of Laws (Hons I) from The University of Sydney. Prior to coming to Oxford he was working as a solicitor in Allens’ Disputes & Investigations team in Sydney. He devotes much of his energy to making intellectual contributions to the law through publications, part-time teaching, and private and pro bono practice, while also trying to leave room for sport, drama, and travel. By undertaking the BCL, Xander hopes to reinforce his passions in private law obligations and remedies, commercial litigation and legal history, and considers the course to be the perfect platform from which to develop a generalist legal practice and capacity to contribute more broadly to the Australian justice system.

Middle Reader

Jasmine Jones is a Stipendiary Lecturer in English (650–1550) at St Hugh’s College and St Peter’s College, Oxford. She is completing her DPhil as a Clarendon Scholar and the Bruce Mitchell Scholar of Old and Middle English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford. Her thesis studies the earliest literature that survives in the English language: Old English religious verse composed by monastic poets around 700–850 AD. Her DPhil focuses on the theology developed by this poetry, researching the possible influence of diverse spiritual traditions on the early English Church. Jasmine has also published on the vernacular translations of Latin theological prose such as Augustine’s Soliloquies during the late ninth-century reign of King Alfred the Great. Jasmine is passionate about public outreach and has spoken about her research live on Radio Maria England and for an online lecture as part of the Future of the Humanities Project based at Georgetown University.

Middle Reader

Katerina Levinson is reading for the DPhil in Medieval and Modern Languages (Spanish) at Wolfson College, Oxford. She completed the MSt in Medieval and Modern Languages (Spanish and English) at The Queen's College, Oxford in 2021. Prior to that, she graduated from the Honors College at Baylor University, where she studied Great Texts and Spanish. She was a recipient of the Fulbright ETA Fellowship from the U.S. State Department and Spanish government, and has worked as a political philosophy research assistant and an English and History secondary school teacher. Her research interests include gender and religious themes in Spanish Golden Age literature (especially drama) and visual art. In her free time, Katerina enjoys rock climbing, rowing, and singing. She is a 2021 Barry scholar.

Middle Reader

Gregory Langone is reading for the MSc in Engineering Science by Research at New College. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he studied Civil Engineering and minored in Applied Statistics. Gregory has put his knowledge of materials and statistics to work in the Pentagon for the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy, and Environment where he wrote papers on emerging sustainable construction materials to inform political appointees and senior Army leaders. Outside the classroom, Gregory has a passion for working in teams, which he has done as a member of the NCAA Cross Country and Track & Field teams and as a representative on West Point’s Honour Committee. Gregory now looks to serve as an Engineer officer in the United States Army where he will engage directly with infrastructure that affects the lives of soldiers and civilians alike. Gregory is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Ella Lubell is reading for the BPhil in Philosophy at Christ Church. She graduated from Yale University with a BA in Philosophy and calls Norwich, Vermont home. She is interested in studying ancient moral psychology and metaphysics, focusing particularly on how ancient views can respond to contemporary philosophical concerns. She wrote her undergraduate senior essay on moral education in Aristotle and its similarities to scientific and practical education. When she’s not reading ancient Greek texts, you can find Ella singing liturgical music, debating politics, or working on a cross-stitch project. Ella is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Tom is reading for a DPhil in History at Wolfson College. He previously read for a BA in History at St Peter’s College and an MSt in Medieval History at St Hugh’s College. Tom is a medievalist working on English textual communities in the centuries following the Norman Conquest. His thesis is about the transmission and use of abbreviations and copies of the Domesday Book. He is interested in the kinds of things that all sorts of texts can tell us about the people who wrote them and what they thought, particularly when those texts are understood in their physical contexts. Tom was a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholar in the Humanities between 2020 and 2023, and is a Scouloudi Fellow at the IHR for 2023-24. He is also a Lecturer at Brasenose College.

Middle Reader

Liam McDonnell read Medieval History and Theology at the University of St Andrews, where he was awarded the Gray Prize and Hope Trust award for his dissertation on Aquinas’s doctrine of divine impassibility. Following this, he completed an MSt in Medieval Studies at Blackfriars, Oxford, where he is now writing a DPhil in Theology on the question of the salvation of those who are ignorant of Christianity through no fault of their own, focusing on tracing the question from the early twelfth century through to Thomas Aquinas. He is also interested in, amongst other things, questions relating to the divine attributes, and medieval history and theology more broadly. He is student president of the Oxford Chapter of the Thomistic Institute.

Middle Reader

Matthew Morris is reading for the DPhil in Computer Science at Hertford College. He completed a Masters in Computer Science with distinction from Oxford in 2021 and did his BSc (Honours) in Math and Computer Science at the University of Cape Town, where he graduated top of his class. He has experience working in software development, academia, and industry research, and has published papers in several influential conferences. His doctoral work is within the field of artificial intelligence (AI), where he aims to create systems that work with structured knowledge by learning to reason in robust, interpretable, and scalable ways. A proud South African, he has a passion for free-diving, ultimate frisbee, sailing, and outdoor adventures. He is also involved in initiatives to uplift Africa within the field of AI. He aims to return to work in AI industry, solving real-world problems and, led by his Catholic faith, being a pioneer and voice for using AI responsibly.

Middle Reader

Grace Mullett is reading for the PhD in English at St Catharine’s College, Cambridge. She previously completed a BA in Great Texts and Religion at Baylor University, and a MSt in English at Pembroke College. Her research focuses on the relationship between religion, gender, and literary form in nineteenth-century women’s writing. Her thesis explores the work of Dinah Craik, George Eliot, Charlotte Yonge, and Mrs Humphry Ward. She is particularly interested in how different tonalities of Anglicanism shaped these writers’ responses to questions of moral economy and gendered belief, and the degree to which they mediated theological and ecclesiastical controversy through fiction. She is currently finishing her research in Oxford.

Middle Reader

Fr Joseph Murphy is a 2022 Ramsay Scholar reading for the MPhil in Philosophical Theology. He is a Catholic priest from Brisbane with a passion for the classics. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Ancient Greek, Latin, Literature) from the University of Sydney, a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) from the University of Notre Dame (for which he analysed Aristotle’s Greek philosophical texts) and a Bachelor of Theology. In 2019 he was ordained a priest for the Sydney Archdiocese. He has worked as an Assistant Priest at All Saints Parish, Liverpool, as well as Chaplain for two schools and Volunteer Chaplain for Liverpool Hospital. His prospective thesis considers whether questions of a religious/metaphysical nature can maximise human flourishing and civic engagement and whether a pluralistic democracy should facilitate pursuit of these questions in educating citizens. In the future he hopes to incorporate this knowledge into his teaching and pastoral work.

Middle Reader

Drummond Orr is reading for the MPhil in Economics at Brasenose College. He attended the University of Melbourne on a Chancellor’s Scholarship, after he became one of the first people in Western Australia to achieve a perfect IB Diploma Score. In 2020, he graduated from Melbourne with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours in Economics) where he was the top Economics Honours student and won the Jean Polglaze Memorial Prize for best Economics Honours essay. In 2021, he received a World Universities Ramsay Postgraduate Scholarship. Drummond has extensive work experience in healthcare and is passionate about using economics to address Australia’s mental health crisis. In the future, he hopes to create economic policies to improve mental health outcomes, possibly through the creation of his own think tank. Drummond is an avid runner, having completed two half marathons.

Middle Reader

Taylon Owens is reading for a Master’s of Public Policy at St Catherine’s College, Oxford where he also completed a MSc in Environmental Change and Management. Prior to Oxford, he graduated magna cum laude from Prairie View A&M University, where he received a BSc in Chemical Engineering. Throughout his tenure as a student, he held leadership positions in the Student Government Association, National Society of Black Engineers, and the Eta Gamma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated. As a member of the University Honors Program, Taylon also organised the inaugural TEDxPVAMU event with the theme Unlock Your Mind. He believes that in order to deconstruct the narratives in place for Black people and other marginalised communities, we must first do our part by educating ourselves and one another. He plans on using his technical background to address the environmental issues plaguing this world. At Oxford, Taylon is studying the intersection of energy, environmental justice, and policy with hopes of finding effective solutions to this paradoxical relationship. With his spare time, he enjoys playing for his college basketball team, exploring new places, and having a nice cup of tea. Taylon is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Ethan Phillips is reading for the MSc in Modelling for Global Health at Reuben College. He graduated with honors and highest distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BSPH in Health Policy and Management from the Gillings School of Global Public Health with minors in Public Policy and Chemistry. At UNC, Ethan was a Morehead-Cain scholar and was awarded the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award for unselfish dedication to human welfare. He was also highly involved in student governance and pursued public health and health policy research, completing an honors thesis on the use of data and technology to advance health equity in primary care. Ethan is interested in exploring the intersection of economics, healthcare, and equity and intends to apply to medical school following his studies at Oxford. Outside of his academic pursuits, he enjoys sailing, cooking, and spending time outdoors. Ethan is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Henry Littleton Phillips is a 2022 Ramsay Scholar reading for the BPhil in Philosophy at Lady Margaret Hall. He is originally from the Adelaide Hills in Adelaide, South Australia and holds a Bachelor of Arts (Advanced) and a Master of Philosophy from the University of Adelaide, where he has also taught ethics and moral philosophy. His current research focuses on the intersection between ethics and the philosophy of mind, with a particular focus on the problem of other minds and the philosophy of the emotions.

Middle Reader

Clemente Recabarren is reading for the DPhil in Law at St John’s College. His academic interests lie in constitutional law, philosophy of law and legal history. His doctoral research focuses on theories of constitution-making and constitutional amendment. Prior to his doctoral studies, Clemente completed an MPhil in Law at Oxford. His MPhil thesis explored the relation between public international law and constitutional law, and offered a critical account of the role of states in the international sphere based on the concepts of sovereignty and subsidiarity. Before coming to Oxford, Clemente obtained his law degree (Hons) from Universidad Católica de Chile in 2016, where he was appointed Adjunct Professor in 2018. In conjunction with his academic activities, he also worked as legal advisor to the President of the Republic of Chile under the Ministry Secretary General of the Presidency, practiced law and interned for the Constitutional Court of Chile.

Middle Reader

Grace Regnier will read the BPhil in Philosophy at Oriel College. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Philosophy and a BSc in Biology from the University of South Carolina, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Josiah Morse Award for philosophy. Her cross-disciplinary research examined how mechanistic philosophy informs schema formation for emerging concepts in brain ageing. She wrote her thesis on perfection, goodness, and final causes in Descartes and Thomas Aquinas. Grace founded and led her campus chapter of the Thomistic Institute, for which she organised reading groups and lectures on how the insights of the Catholic intellectual tradition can help us answer contemporary questions. In her free time, Grace enjoys reading novels, baking desserts, visiting sunny beaches, and exploring the American South which she calls home. Grace is excited to delve into the relationship between metaphysics, natural philosophy, and ethics, focusing especially on the transition from classical to early modern philosophy and the recent revival in virtue ethics. Grace is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Piero Rios Carrillo is reading for the DPhil in Law at St Peter's College. His doctoral research focuses on developing a comparativist account of legal reasoning that is both compatible with and enriched by the concept of virtue. Previously, he read for the MJur at St Cross College, and before coming to Oxford obtained his law degree from Universidad Católica San Pablo (Peru). Piero is deeply interested in the philosophy of law, as evidenced by his Bachelor's dissertation (published as a book by Palestra Editores, 2021), and his MJur dissertation (which will appear in the journal 'Legal Theory' by Cambridge University Press). Before coming to Oxford he worked as a qualified lawyer at a Peruvian law firm; and following his graduation from Oxford, he completed a year of internships in London focusing on international arbitration.

Middle Reader

Craig Ruiz is reading for the BA in History and Politics at Regent's Park College. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Arizona State University with a BA in Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership and a minor in Spanish. His thesis for Barrett, the Honours College was an analysis of theories of political cohesion in Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. He wishes to continue his study of cohesion in diverse historical contexts. He also has a passion for local politics and has worked with the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Outside of his formal studies, Craig is an enthusiastic traveler, concertgoer, and reader of classic texts. Craig is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Emerson Salovaara is reading for the BPhil in Philosophy at St Edmund Hall. He graduated magna cum laude with an AB in Philosophy from Princeton University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the Class of 1869 Prize for his thesis on natural law ethics. Emerson is interested in the political implications of human nature, especially regarding the proper use of technology to achieve social well-being. He enjoys cycling, backpacking, and long walks through old cities. Emerson is a 2021 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Benjamin Sharkey is reading for the DPhil in History at Magdalen College as an Oxford Nizami-Ganjavi Scholar. He holds a BA in History from the University of Birmingham, and an MPhil in Late Antique and Byzantine Studies from the University of Oxford. His current research explores various aspects of the experience of Christian communities in medieval Central Asia. More broadly he is interested in the wider history of Central Asia, the Islamic world, and the Mongol empire; the history of Syriac, Asian and non-European Christianity; and in rethinking approaches to the study of historical religion and belief, particularly in medieval scholarship.

Middle Reader

Eric Sheng is reading for the DPhil, in Philosophy, at Merton College. He previously read for the BA, initially in History and then in History and Politics, at University College, Oxford, and the BPhil, in Philosophy, at Corpus Christi College. His academic interests include the history of ideas (especially of moral philosophy and of XVIIth- and XVIIIth-century European philosophy), social and moral philosophy, and metaphysics. He is a 2021 Ramsay Scholar.

Middle Reader

Alberto Solano is reading for the DPhil in Theology (New Testament) at Keble College. His research traces the use of the Book of Exodus in the Epistle to the Hebrews, looking particularly at the reception and use of the Sinaitic law. He completed the MPhil in Theology at Oxford in 2022. Prior to moving to the UK, Alberto lived in Mexico where he was raised and had a background in business administration. In his free time, he loves a good cup of coffee and to chat about anything related to Latin America, especially history, politics, and art.

Middle Reader

Lauren Spohn is a Rhodes Scholar reading the DPhil in Intellectual History at Wadham College. She earned a Masters in Intellectual History with distinction from Oxford in 2021 and graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa as the highest-ranked 2020 graduate of Harvard College, where she studied English and History. Her doctoral work focuses on historical meta-narratives of progress and (dis)enchantment in modern Anglo-American philosophy. Originally from Texas, she is also a filmmaker and essayist with work experience in venture capital, private equity, and educational nonprofits. In her spare time, she enjoys running ultramarathons and flying small planes. Long-term, she aspires to work across art, scholarship, and entrepreneurship to re-enchant the world.

Middle Reader

Benedict Stanley is reading for the DPhil in Law at Queen’s College where he will also be the Anthony Honoré Scholar in Law. Benedict’s previous degree was a BA in Jurisprudence from St John’s College, where he was a Casberd Scholar, and obtained the White & Case Prize in Comparative Private Law. He plans to pursue a DPhil, which is to be a comparative and historical study of the development of doctrinal legal scholarship in England and Germany (with additional reference to the United States) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Benedict is particularly interested in questioning certain conceptual assumptions in how law is explained (taxonomies, national boundaries) and the implications of this for traditional “black letter” legal scholarship. In his spare time, Benedict occupies himself with analogue photography, computer programming, art galleries, and endeavouring to read as widely as possible. Benedict is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Kerry Sun is reading for the DPhil in Law at Merton College, where his research focuses on tort law and interpersonal fairness in market relations. Previously, he read for the Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction) at Merton College and received his Juris Doctor (Distinction) from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. Before coming to Oxford, he served as a law clerk at the Court of Appeal of Alberta and to Justice Sheilah L. Martin at the Supreme Court of Canada, and worked as a litigation associate in the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. His academic interests include natural law theory, theory of private law, and methodologies of rights adjudication.

Middle Reader

Michele Szegda is reading for the MSc in Medical Physics with Radiation Biology. She will graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she studied Nuclear Engineering with a Life Science concentration. Michele is a member of the Women’s Army Rugby team and a member of the Officers’ Christian Fellowship, where she remains dedicated to fostering inclusive and supportive teams with those around her. Inspired by her parents’ battle with cancer and her service as an enlisted medic in the United States Army, Michele’s passion for learning is expressed through the nexus of her academic interests of cellular biology, chemistry, and nuclear engineering. She has pursued multiple research projects in investigating metallic nanoparticles’ interaction with gamma radiation, in developing the pyrotechnic ignitor for the SPEAR team’s rocket, and in examining the ethical implications of utilizing nanotechnology for human enhancement. In her career, Michele intends to develop innovative, human-centric technologies in radiation biology to improve the effectiveness of current therapeutic cancer treatments. Critical to progressing the fields of nuclear medicine and radiation oncology, the next generation of scientists must be able to speak multiple scientific disciplines, with chemistry and radiation biology being a primary focus. In her career, Michele plans to utilise her diverse academic background and her personal experiences to not only bridge the divide between basic research enterprises and clinical investigation, but to combine her comprehensive knowledge of radiation and its effects on biological systems to mitigate the subversive effects of radiotherapy. Michele is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Jonathan Tjandra is reading for the BCL at Balliol College. He graduated with a Bachelor of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (Hons I) and Juris Doctor from the Australian National University. Previously, Jonathan was the Legal Research Officer to the Hon Susan Kiefel AC, Chief Justice of Australia, and practised public and constitutional law as Counsel for the Australian Government Solicitor. His research interests are in constitutional law, specifically on judicial power and judicial review. Jonathan is a 2022 Ramsay Scholar.

Middle Reader

Taman Turbinton completed his MPhil in Theology (New Testament) at Keble and is continuing to read for a DPhil in Theology (New Testament) at the same college. His DPhil dissertation is an expansion of his MPhil dissertation, which argued that there is evidence for antislavery and abolitionist sentiments amongst ancient Jews and Christians. His other research interests include ancient classical literature, early Jewish and Christian theology and literature, palaeography, and textual criticism. Taman was born in Grand Rapids, MI, but also raised in New Orleans, LA, where his late father and uncle, Earl Turbinton, Jr., and Wilson 'Willie Tee' Turbinton, were famed Jazz musicians. Taman also has a variety of hobbies, such as reading, traveling, and listening to and learning about all things J. S. Bach.

Middle Reader

Hamish Tynan is reading for the BPhil in Philosophy at St Hugh’s College. He completed a Bachelor of Arts (Advanced) with First Class Honours in Philosophy at the University of Adelaide, where he received the Jefferis Memorial Medal and the Professor Sir William Mitchell Prize for Honours Philosophy. His academic interests include the philosophy of logic, and the history and philosophy of morality. Outside of study, he is a keen athlete and musician. Hamish is a 2022 Ramsay Scholar.

Middle Reader

Peter Varga is reading for the DPhil in Experimental Psychology at Christ Church. Before coming up to Oxford, he received his MSc in Psychological Sciences from William & Mary. He graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa as the President’s Award recipient and a University Scholar from the Catholic University of America with a BA in Psychology and minors in Neuroscience, Philosophy, and Theology & Religious Studies, earning additional honours in Classical Philosophy, Theology, and Humanities. Drawing on his background as a classically trained guitarist and liturgical organist, his DPhil thesis investigates how emotion and higher states (e.g., inspiration) are communicated by composers to listeners via music, as well as the implications of this process for cultural transmission and evolution. Championing an interdisciplinary approach to the pursuit of knowledge, his past research has examined the role of aesthetics in science, experiences of higher goods (e.g., unity, truth, goodness, beauty) as indicators of self-transcendent well-being, the function of inspiration and imagination in the creative process, the social and emotional underpinnings of the ‘chills’ response to film and music, the effect of social stress on prospective memory, and differences between terrestrial and lunar psychophysics using virtual reality. Outside of academia, Peter serves as the Development Officer for the Christ Church Music Trust. In his free time, he enjoys singing with the Christ Church and Hertford college choirs and fencing with the University Club. Peter is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Eugenia Vorobeva is reading for the DPhil in English at Jesus College. Her research focuses on the Old Norse-Icelandic and Old English literary traditions; in particular, on hagiographic narratives about the apostles. She is a Graduate Research Assistant at the Consolidated Library of Anglo-Saxon Poetry (CLASP) Project and has been convening the Old English Reading Group for the past two years. Eugenia holds a BA in International Relations and an MA in History from the Higher School of Economics in Moscow; she also holds an MSt in Medieval Studies from the University of Oxford.

Middle Reader

Nathan is a DPhil candidate in Theology at St. Peter’s College. His dissertation is a critical exposition and analysis of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, with a focus on Taylor’s interpretation of early modern Protestantism. He studied for his undergraduate degree in Theology at Queen’s University Belfast where he served as Lead Student Representative for Union Theological College and as an Accredited Preacher for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. He earned his MSt in Theology from the University of Oxford in 2019. Over the course of his doctoral work he has been awarded visiting research fellowships at the Institut d’Histoire de la Réformation, Université de Genève, and the H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, MI. He has also been awarded a Civitas Dei Summer Fellowship by the Institute for Human Ecology at The Catholic University of America and the Thomistic Institute at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC. Nathan is a Wolfson Postgraduate Scholar in the Humanities.

Middle Reader

Chelsea is reading for the DPhil in Law at Lady Margaret Hall, where she holds the Ann Kennedy Graduate Scholarship in Law. She is a Ramsay Scholar, with her research focusing on the role of human rights law in addressing domestic abuse, under the supervision of Professors Shazia Choudhry and Jonathan Herring. Supported by a scholarship from Jesus College, she completed the BCL with Distinction in 2021. Chelsea serves on the Editorial Board of the Oxford Human Rights Hub and is a Research Officer and member of the Executive Committee of the Oxford Pro Bono Publico. In addition, she is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Faculty of Law and acts as Research Assistant to Professors Sandy Fredman, Shreya Atrey, and Barbara Havelková. A Choral Bursar at Worcester College, she is also Poetry Editor for the Oxford Public Philosophy journal, and in 2021 received the D L Chapman Memorial Prize for her poetry collection 'Apricity'. Chelsea also holds a MA in English and was previously a secondary teacher at a boarding school in Australia, where she coordinated Gifted and Talented programmes, and she has also served as a Youth Ambassador for Oxfam Australia, a member of the Australian delegation to the Harvard Model United Nations Conference, and a Senior Judge for The Queen's Commonwealth Essay Competition. She is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Middle Reader

Toby Warden is reading for the MPhil in Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on grey zone competition, American defence and foreign policy and Indo-Pacific security. Before studying at Oxford, Toby was a Research Associate in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre. He has previously worked at the Federal Court of Australia’s International Programs Unit, Sydney University’s Centre for International Security Studies and the East-West Center in Washington, DC. He holds a Bachelor of International and Global Studies with First Class Honours from the University of Sydney. Toby is a 2021 Ramsay Scholar.

Middle Reader

Br. Matthew Warnez is reading for the DPhil in Theology at Blackfriars, where his research concerns the Christian tradition's exceptionless moral norms and their foundation in human nature. He holds a BSE in Engineering Physics from the University of Michigan and an MA in Theology from the Saint Paul Seminary. He is a member of the Brotherhood of Hope, a Catholic religious community based in the United States.

Middle Reader

Rohan Watt is reading for the DPhil in International Relations at Pembroke College. His research focuses on understanding the expansion of legislative authority placed in international institutions and how this interacts with international politics and global order. He graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Arts with first class honours in political science and a Bachelor of Laws, and is an admitted lawyer of the Supreme Court of Queensland in Australia. He was a recipient of a Governor Phillip Scholarship to read the MPhil in International Relations at Oxford immediately prior to commencing his doctorate, during which he focused on the changing character of the regulation of conflict, especially as it relates to foreign volunteer fighters. Prior to his postgraduate studies, Rohan was a political adviser to the Australian Attorney-General and Leader of the Government in the Senate. Rohan is a 2021 Ramsay Scholar.

Middle Reader

Bond West is reading for the DPhil in English at Lincoln College, where he specialises in Old Norse/Icelandic language and literature. He holds a BA in Classics and History from Baylor University, an MA in Medieval Icelandic Studies from the University of Iceland, and an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic from the University of Cambridge. He is a former Fulbright Researcher in Iceland and worked for a time as a Latin teacher.

Middle Reader

Nicholas West is reading for the MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing at Merton College, Oxford. Afterward, he will read for the MSc by Research in Mathematics at St Cross College, Oxford. His research focuses on using numerical linear algebra techniques to analyse large networks. He graduated summa cum laude from Hillsdale College with a BSc in Applied Mathematics and Physics. In his senior thesis in Physics, he explored the use of pulsars to detect gravitational waves. In his undergraduate research in applied mathematics, he modelled the spread of opioids in the U.S. and the migration of mackerel and herring in the Atlantic Ocean. He has also performed research in signals analysis with the U.S. Department of Defense. He worked on campus at Hillsdale as a teaching assistant and tutor in Calculus and Linear Algebra. Outside of work and academics, Nicholas led weekly meetings for Hillsdale’s Chess Club and volunteered teaching Sunday school at his local church. His favorite pastimes are reading fiction, learning languages, and watching movies with family and friends. Nicholas is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Lindsey A. Williams is reading for the MPhil in Politics (Political Theory). Originally from Salem, Oregon, she graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a minor in History. While there, she was an Undergraduate Fellow at Stanford Law School’s Constitutional Law Center, as well as founder, staff editor, and contributor to the Stanford Undergraduate Law Review. She also belonged to the founding board of her local chapter of the ACLU. An awarded writer and speaker, Lindsey has earned accolades from the Hoover Institute and PEN America for her essays and papers. Her research includes work on applying rational choice theory to judicial decision-making during periods of political polarisation, the history of justiciability doctrines in American common law, and the emergence of written constitutionalism in the colonial Americas. She will be studying the intersection of democratic theory, judicial power, and constitutional interpretation. After completing her MPhil, she will be continuing her education at Yale Law School. Outside of her work, Lindsey’s hobbies include digital photography, reading novels, collecting vinyl, and enjoying all kinds of live music. Lindsey is a 2023 Barry Scholar.

Middle Reader

Daniel Woolnough is reading for the DPhil at Oriel College, specialising in the Philosophy of Religion. His current research focuses on the problem of evil broadly, with a specific emphasis on theodicy—an enterprise that investigates the reasons God may have for permitting evil. Daniel holds an MSt in Philosophical Theology from Mansfield College and has broad interests in Analytic Philosophy, including Bayesianism, Modal Metaphysics, Axiology, and Formal Logic.

Middle Reader

Victoria Xiao is reading for the MPhil in Theology (New Testament) at St Cross College. Her undergraduate degree comes from Dartmouth College, where she majored in Philosophy. Her research connects philosophy, theology, and political economy. As a student researcher, she worked extensively with Dartmouth professors on Augustine, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Thomas Aquinas. In particular, she has written about the theological implications of De Trinitate as a phenomenological text, particularly concerning the Filioque. She has also analysed Western cultural and political issues from an onto-theological standpoint, juxtaposing Jean-Paul Sartre and Jacques Maritain’s views of existence and their respective moral implications. Moreover, supported by two different Dartmouth grants, Victoria researched twentieth-century Russian and East European literature and twentieth-century Chinese intellectual history. At Oxford, Victoria hopes to explore the personal, immanent, and transformative dimensions of metaphysics through the study of Scripture and its patristic reception. In her free time, Victoria enjoys playing the piano and a Chinese instrument called Guqin. Victoria is a 2022 Barry Scholar.

Junior Reader

Alexander Norris is reading for the BA in Literae Humaniores (Course IA) at St John’s College. His primary academic interests lie in archaic Greek verse, specifically the development of Greek poetry bridging the late archaic and early classical periods (such as the lyric verse of Simonides, Bacchylides, and Pindar). Linked to this is his fascination in the field of linguistics with the historical development of the Greek language in its various dialects, looking in particular at the pan-Hellenic cultural role of the ‘epic’ or ‘Homeric’ Kunstsprache. More widely, he is also interested in the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, especially with regard to their views on virtue. Outside of his academic work, Alex is heavily involved in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, where he is Officer in Command of Force Development at the Oxford University Air Squadron. He also co-founded the Oxford Society of Metaphysics, helped to convene the Taunton Talks series of lectures at Grandpont House, and has served as both Acting President of Oxford Students for Life and Vice President of the Newman Society. His hobbies include hiking, flying, and long, rambling theological conversations.

Junior Reader

Rose Webster is reading for a BA in Theology and Religion at Regent's Park College and for a BSc in Mathematics at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her research interests are broadly in the area of systematic theology and patristics, with a goal of synthesising contemporary, and patristic, and medieval exegesis. The focus of her current research project is the doctrine of the indwelling of the Holy Trinity in the writings of Maximus the Confessor. Her research interests in mathematics include nonlinear dynamical systems and philosophy of mathematics.

Office Manager & Senior Reader

Dr Madalena Brito read her PhD in Classical Studies in the University of Lisbon, Portugal. She researches 16th century unedited Latin manuscripts on slavery and the natural rights of persons, and is currently investigating the Iberian School of Peace and Natural Law (of the Second Scholasticism in Portugal and Spain). She is interested in the intellectual history of natural rights, slavery and natural law. As Office Manager, Dr Brito manages the Canterbury Institute’s premises in St Aldate’s, Oxford, including organising study space for students.

Director

Dr Dominic Burbidge is the Founding Director of the Canterbury Institute. A graduate of the University of Oxford, he has held numerous teaching, research and administrative positions across the University. He was formerly a Postdoctoral Researcher in Princeton University and is now a permanent Lecturer in Politics for Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, and Research Coordinator for Oxford’s Faculty of Law. Dr Burbidge is also a Research Associate of Oxford’s Institute for Ethics in AI, and an Associate Member of the Department of Politics & International Relations. Dr Burbidge is the single author of two books and ten peer-reviewed articles, with a focus on the nature of democracy, social trust and interpersonal unity. His current research applies virtue ethics to political theory.

Programme Manager

Ashley Crowley recently graduated from the University of Oxford with a Bachelor’s degree in Theology. She wrote her dissertation on the importance of beauty and the role that the built environment plays in spaces of worship. Prior to her studies, Ashley worked full time in production, managing her photography and videography company where she specialised in editorial print and women’s fashion. As programme manager, Ashley organises the events hosted by the Institute alongside supporting the Barry Scholars nomination process and annual donor presentations.

Finance Manager

Aaron Mansfield began working life repairing electronic circuits for Allen & Heath, the famous mixing console manufacturer used by Pink Floyd and The Who. He later studied Theology at Heythrop College, University of London, and as a Flatley Fellow in Theological Ethics at Boston College, before gaining his DPhil from the University of Oxford as an AHRC-funded scholar. He is interested in the intellectual history of moral theology. He previously worked in an academic library, and in a student welfare role with American students in Oxford. As Finance Manager, Aaron oversees the Canterbury Institute’s budgets, human resources, and scholarship disbursements.